Cohort Profile Cohort Profile: the Cambridge Baby Growth Study (CBGS)

Why was the cohort set up? The Cambridge Baby Growth Study (CBGS) is a prospective, observational pregnancy and birth cohort with detailed assessments and sample collections in infancy and continuing childhood follow-up. Women were recruited during early pregnancy from April 2001 to March 2009; they attended several study visits throughout pregnancy, and then repeatedly with their infants until the age of 2 years. The main aim of the study has been to investigate the antenatal and postnatal determinants of infancy growth and reproductive development, including environmental, genetic, hormonal and nutritional exposures. Collection of extensive anthropometric, nutritional, demographic and biological data has allowed detailed examination of the first 1000 days of life, a time of emerging importance for the early origins of health and disease, where in utero exposures, early growth, nutrition and genetic interactions are thought to contribute to later-life disease risk, All women were recruited from a single study site: the Rosie Maternity Hospital, Cambridge, UK, and the Cambridge local research ethics committee approved the study. Initial funding was from the European Union Framework V, with the specific objective to investigate the effect of environmental factors during pregnancy on male offspring reproductive development over the first 2 years of life. From the outset, the study was designed to also include female offspring and to collect data on infancy growth and body composition. Subsequent funding and collaborations have allowed further nested case control studies and continuing follow-up through childhood. Cohort funding has been received from the World Cancer Research Fund International, the Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children, the Mothercare Group Foundation and a collaborative research grant from the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology. Support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) has been awarded through a clinical research training fellowship (G1001995), a Cambridge University MRC Centenary award, and assisted by MRC Department of Epidemiology programmatic funding (U106179472). Lipidomic assays were also supported by the MRC (UD99999906) and the Cambridge Lipidomics Biomarker Research Initiative (G0800783). Genotyping and placental RNA work was funded by grants from the Evelyn Trust, the Wellbeing of Women and Diabetes UK (11/ 0004241). Funding from Mead Johnson Nutrition has allowed further biochemical analysis of biological specimens, in particular breast milk samples, and childhood follow-up. Continued support and funding are provided by the National Institute of Human Research Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre.